George Kinkead

Turfco

The defining moment that
would set the stage
for the Kinkead family legacy came in the European countryside during
World War I, when Robert Kinkead took note of the sickle mowers being
used to manage tall grass. He carried this image with him,
and seeing a market for maintenance equipment upon his return to the
U.S., he founded National Mower in 1919. He started with the sickle
mowers and then began to manufacture triplex mowers, which he
sold to golf courses. These machines are what put food on the Kinkead
family table through the Depression. In the 1950s, Robert's son John
came aboard, and it was he who later purchased
Turfco.

Depending on
how you want to look at it, laughs George Kinkead, grandson of Robert
and president of Turfco Manufacturing today, his own involvement in
the green industry has spanned either 17 years or 40. He earned a
bachelor's degree in economics from Washington & Lee University in
1985 and has worked formally and full-time for Turfco
since his graduation. However, his employment in the family business
actually began at the age of 13, when he worked part-time and summers.

"Their dads
didn't send them off to college, bring them back and then flaunt them
into management," says Turfco's Director of
Lawn Products, Bob Brophy, of the Kinkead family. "These guys started
sweeping floors, working in the parts department, and working on the
assembly line. It was years before they even got to
move into the sales department. They held down every job in that place
at one time or another. So, when somebody in the factory talks about
some problem, they know what the guy?s talking about.
They've been there."

So strong are
Kinkead's ties to the industry that they even have a habit of showing up
in his recreational life. An individual who occasionally
likes to unwind with a bit of golf, he says, "As many people in the
green industry know, sometimes you're so close to it that you don't get a
chance to enjoy it. When I do play, I
enjoy the game, but it's hard for me to play without trying to think of
some product to make the superintendent's job better."

One solution to
such an all-encompassing mindset is to choose a sport that has
absolutely nothing to do with one's vocation. Golf is an enjoyable
game for Kinkead, but it isn't his passion. His passion is downhill
skiing, and whenever he gets a chance, he enthusiastically hits the
slopes in Colorado.

"It's something completely opposite of the green industry," he chuckles. "Maybe that's why I enjoy it so much.

Playing with
his kids is another cherished pastime. He has a 9-year-old son, a
5-year-old daughter and a 3-year-old son. He jokes that their
development
is measured by how well they can play catch.

"They're a lot of fun when they get to the point where you can throw them a ball and they can actually catch it," he says. "I
think for every guy, it's kind of challenging until the kids can catch the ball."

Brophy
underscores the fact that George Kinkead is first and foremost a family
man, recalling an incident from Halloween 2001: "George took his
kids trick-or-treating," says Brophy, "and he lost his cell phone. We
joked with him that there's some little goblin running around with his
cell phone and all his
numbers."

Will he
encourage his kids to follow in his footsteps? Even though he'd love for
them to come into his line of work, it's totally up to
them, he says. He feels strongly that they should only pursue what
they're passionate about. He feels that the only way any industry
survives – and the green industry is no exception – is when everyone in a
position of authority has a passion for what they?re doing.

Kinkead says he
feels blessed to be a part of this profession and describes it as a
group of people who love to work outside and work with their hands.
Such people, he has found, tend to be among the best folks in a
population.success,customer

A heritage like
the one shared by the Kinkead family has its rewards, such as the
passing down of the keys to success. In this case, one of those keys
comes in the form of a philosophy that the three successive generations
have shared.

Says Kinkead,
"The way you serve the customer best is to know the customer, which
sounds a little trite in today's world, but we feel that
we survive and thrive in this business by getting to know the customer
better than anyone else. That's the way you can succeed. You need to
know what his problems are in a day and what is
stopping him from being successful. If you make your customer
successful, then your success will follow."